The Big Picture

By Jeff Chacon

Once upon a time, there were three glorious beings, whose individual brilliance was surpassed only by the deep and passionate love they shared for each other, making them like three separate flames merged into one brilliant fire, constituting one magnificent Person!

Out of their overflowing love, wisdom, and might, the Magnificent One formed powerful and beautiful creatures to sing songs that would fill eternity and magnify his praiseworthy name.

Heaven was filled for a long time with these angelic voices, and they lived happily together with their wise and loving Creator.

But for one of these angelic beings, heaven was not enough – he wanted more. He wanted more than to be loved. He wanted to be worshipped, like his Creator. So wickedness was born, and in the dragon’s deceit and treachery, he seduced one third of the heavenly host to betray their loving King.

And so there was war in heaven. The mighty Archangel, Michael, rallied the faithful to his side and fought against the Dragon and his deviants and drove them out of paradise, where they writhed in the pain of their wickedness and sought desperately for revenge.

The scene was now set for the arrival of the Magnificent One’s most exalted creation: man. And so he spoke an astonishing world into existence – filled with beautiful skies, breathtaking landscapes, and extraordinary creatures of all shapes and sizes. And then he lovingly formed man out of the dust of the earth and breathed the breath of life into him. Taking the man’s rib, he formed a perfect partner for him and called her woman, and the angels burst forth in songs of praise, wonder and amazement!

But the Dragon found these glorious creatures and infected them with his awful wickedness, so that they too fell from their garden paradise to wander in a cursed world that was a mere shadow of the splendid place it had been.

Forever aware of the cost of free will, the Lover still loved his beloved, and launched into the next phase of his brilliant and mysterious plan to rescue man from his lost and broken state. The Magnificent One would pour himself into the body of a human and send that human into the world as a Savior of mankind. It was a bold and audacious plan – one that sprung from a passionate heart who would rather die a temporary death on earth, than live an eternity in heaven without his beloved.

Time does not permit us to delve into all the wonderful and fanciful stories that the book goes on to tell about our spiritual ancestors, but suffice to say that the plan involved a man named Abraham, who would become a nation named Israel, which would spawn a child named Jesus, who would grow up to show his people the heart of the Magnificent One, and invite them to join him on his journey back home.

Some of the people accepted the invitation and followed him. But most of them despised and rejected him – infected by the same awful wickedness that the Enemy had been spreading from the beginning. They crucified him – not understanding that he was the author of their stories and ours – the author of life itself.

But he who is life itself could not be destroyed. He willingly sacrificed his body on the cross to save mankind and lay down a bridge across the abyss of hell, that we might walk across it and find our way home. His prophesied resurrection from the dead was emblazoned on the hearts of those to whom he appeared as both a powerful testimony that he was truly a flame of the Magnificent One, and dramatic proof of his unconditional love for man. One day the flame will return to judge and make right, to rescue and make new – and they will live happily ever after…

Like wildfire, the message spread: first in Jerusalem where the life-force lived, died and rose again; then in all Judea and Samaria; and finally to the ends of the earth. One by one, the story was told. And one by one, the beloved either accepted or rejected the invitation to follow their Lover home.

The story continues today because it is our story – the story of our lives. But most have never heard of it because of the deafening roar of the Dragon who gets his revenge every time a lost soul takes his last breath and passes into eternal horrors unspeakable.

Have you heard this story? It involves angels and demons, heroes and villains, truth and deceit, fellowship and treachery, passion and adventure, hope and despair – all of the things that make a really good story… only this one’s real, and it’s the larger context of our lives, giving us purpose, meaning, and a crucial role to play.